In this article from azcentral, Leandro makes a few comments about the trade rumors and the Shaq trade.... The quote that caught my eye was this one.

A Brazilian sports newspaper, Lance, asked Suns guard Leandro Barbosa about talk that he might wind up following D'Antoni to New York.

"It's not a rumor," Barbosa said while in his hometown, Sao Paolo. "I will play where I have to play. It's business.

This seems like a huge change from the Leandro who was almost in tears when he was fooled into thinking he was traded to the Knicks midseason this past year.

The article also mentions reports that the Nets have interest in Barbosa. This doesn't make sense to me as they just traded for Devin Harris who is a similar player to Barbosa. Who else would they be looking to offer for him?

I haven't been in favor of many of the deals I've heard involving Leandro but this is one I might not mind. Josh Howard for Barbosa? I'm not sure how likely it is, but it also mentions Diaw for Howard. I would take either deal in a heartbeat considering a lot of last season, Josh Howard was the best player on the Mavs. He would be someone who could come in and start right away in front of Grant Hill.

If you would have asked me last season if we should be making any moves involving trading Barbosa, I would have said no way. But now that we are Suns + Shaq & Kerr - Marion & D'Antoni, I'm not sure what we should do. What do you guys think?

NBA.com has a "NBA Playoff Seeding Scenarios" posted.
http://www.nba.com/news/playoff_scenarios_080416.html

3 of the Scenarios have Phoenix playing the Spurs, 2 playing Utah, and 1 playing Houston.

The only thing that confuses me is how does Houston have homecourt in the series against us if we are the 4th Seed and they're the 5th?

.

(Higher Seeded team has homecourt in first round unless otherwise indicated)
1. If Houston and San Antonio win:
3-San Antonio
4-Utah
5-Houston (homecourt)
6-Phoenix

2. If Houston, Utah and Phoenix win:
3-Utah
4-Phoenix
5-Houston (homecourt)
6-San Antonio

3. If Utah wins and Phoenix loses:
3-Utah
4-San Antonio
5-Houston
6-Phoenix

4. If San Antonio and Phoenix wins and Houston loses:
3-San Antonio
4-Utah
5-Phoenix (homecourt)
6-Houston

5. If San Antonio wins and Houston and Phoenix lose:
3-San Antonio
4-Utah
5-Houston
6-Phoenix

6. If Utah and Phoenix wins and Houston loses:
3-Utah
4-Phoenix
5-San Antonio
6-Houston

I wasn't really sure where to post this since I didn't want to make this seem like just an ad for my ebay auction, but I thought some of you might be interested. I designed and made these shirts for a bunch of friends and have some extras. As of right now I have at least 1XL, 3L, 3M, and 3S. If I run out and there are more people who want them, I might end up ordering more, just let me know.

You can view the shirts at this link, but for anyone on here who wants one, you can get them through me for $16.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280182713276

bri@gia.net

Again, sorry if this seems like an ad, but I just wanted to let you guys know.

Well, this is my first post on the site so I figured I'd kill two birds and make it my first diary, too.

It could be that I am still in denial, but I for one don't think that a deal for Marion will be done. Neither do I think it should be done unless we are getting equal value for him, which is very unlikely.

Here are a couple things that I find sort of ironic about this whole thing.

1. Shawn says he's sick of hearing his name brought up in trade rumors, but the Suns have never followed through with any of these trades (except for maybe the Garnett trade which would make sense). But now that Marion actually wants a trade, I think he'll find out that the Suns don't actually want to trade him and more than not, the trade rumers were just talk.
   
2. If there was a reason for the Suns to be looking to trade Marion, it would be because of his huge salary. He is already the highest paid player on the team and knows that the Suns are very worried about the luxury tax. But now, he wants to bring up a contract extension (before his contract is even up) for 3 more years where he'd be paid even more money? If he really wanted to stay in Phoenix, wanted the trade rumors to stop, and if it really wasn't just about the money, wouldn't he be happy with a slightly smaller deal?

It just doesn't make sense to me, but I agree with Bill Simmons and many others that he's the 2nd most important player on the team. If we get rid of him, we are severely hurting our chances for a title. And like he said, he's a professional and likes all of his teammates so I don't think the chemistry will be hurt as bad as if we were to give him up for a lesser player. SHAWN, DON'T GO!!

I'll end with a few articles that I found interesting that you may not have seen yet.

Jack McCallum (Author of ":07 or less") tries to answer some of the questions that come with the "Marion Paradox".
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/jack_mccallum/09/27/marion/index.html

Another SI article that goes through possible trade scenarios. Other than AK47 and Odom, he adds the slight possibilities of Richard Jefferson or Ron Artest.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/marty_burns/09/26/marion/index.html

And lastly, an article from Sporting News that gives the Lakers for Odom trade a 50/50 chance.
http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=277969